3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 12/17/19
Basketball is the most consistent sport for daily fantasy purposes.
A top slugger in baseball will have his fair share of 0-for-4 days, and an elite fantasy football player is at risk of having games where his team's offense as a whole is shut down. A high-priced NBA stud is generally going to get his, though. With so many possessions in a game providing opportunities to produce, top fantasy basketball options will be posting high scores just about every night.
While this consistency puts us in a good position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud is likely going to leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.
Let's get right into it and look at which top players should be the focal points of your lineups tonight.
Anthony Davis, PF, Los Angeles Lakers ($10,700)
Choosing between Anthony Davis and LeBron James hasn't always been easy this season, and the pair rank fourth and fifth in the NBA in fantasy production this season, separated by under one FanDuel point per game. But in a matchup with the Indiana Pacers, it's Davis that gets the edge on Tuesday.
The Brow does have the slight edge in average fantasy points over LeBron, and he's shown both a slightly better floor and ceiling. He has topped 45.0 FanDuel points in 84.6% of his games (70.4% for LeBron) and also topped 60.0 in 19.2% (14.8% for LeBron). Davis also has a two-to-one lead over James in games with at least 70 fantasy points, despite playing one fewer contest on the year.
The Pacers aren't a soft matchup by any stretch, but they allow the NBA's second-most FanDuel points per minute to opposing centers while also giving up more to power forwards than small forwards. This is a much more favorable spot for Davis than for James.
Spencer Dinwiddie, PG, Brooklyn Nets ($8,300)
Kyrie Irving is not travelling on this road trip, so tonight should be more of the Spencer Dinwiddie show.
Dinwiddie has a 23.2% usage rate and averages 0.95 FanDuel points per minute in 137 minutes with Irving on the floor this year, but those marks jump way up to 1.22 per minute on 32.2% usage with Irving off. Accordingly, his 15 contests without Kyrie have seen him average 41.0 FanDuel points, compared to just 27.1 with Irving.
That's already just shy of five-times value on today's salary, and he should have little trouble producing well over his averages against the New Orleans Pelicans, who rank 29th in defensive rating and 6th in pace while allowing the league's most fantasy points per minute to opposing point guards.
Ricky Rubio, PG, Phoenix Suns ($8,300)
Devin Booker has missed two straight games, so Ricky Rubio is another point guard getting a big boost tonight.
Rubio had already been producing well lately, averaging 41.1 FanDuel points per game in his last four contests with Booker healthy. His numbers then jumped in the last two games, with 52.1 and 42.2 fantasy points.
Rubio's usage rate hasn't gone up in minutes with Booker off the floor this year, but he has seen a jump from 1.00 to 1.11 fantasy points per minute sans Booker. These two completely Booker-less games have actually seen Rubio's workload climb significantly, as well, sitting at 27.1% in 35.5 minutes per game, compared to 20.3% in 31.9 minutes before Booker went down.
He doesn't get the juicy matchup that Dinwiddie does, taking on a tough Los Angeles Clippers defense, but that kind of volume is enough to put him firmly in play.
Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
